Sprout Magazine

Top 5 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Webcomics

Right you know how this works. Here in no particular order are my top 5 science-fiction/fantasy webcomics.

Cute girls, science, and philosophy. It’s like he read my wish list.

Dresden Codak is probably one of the best looking webcomics I’ve come across. The art is great and really nice to look at. The story and comics are nice too if you can understand them. The series is filled with references to science, psychology, mythology, philosophy, and just about every academic field you can imagine. It’s dense but worth it and you’ll probably learn something after reading it. It’s funny, deep and teaches one surprisingly a lot about transhumanism. The only downside is the somewhat delayed update schedule with about one every month and a half, but the outcome is worth the wait.

Art and museum curators. IN SPACE!

Starslip is a story about space. Space and art. It follows the crew of the Fuseli, a museum ship in the far future whose mission is to spread democracy and peace through art exhibits. Then all hell breaks loose about a third of the way in. What started as a relatively crisis of the week comic soon evolved massive overreaching story arcs. The comic is great with relatable characters who you start to form a real emotional bond with. It’s funny, heartwarming and definitely worth checking out. Sadly, this comic has come to an end, but that means you can get caught up without worrying about being left behind.

More girls and science. Noticing a trend yet?

Girl Genius Comics is a great comic. It’s a gaslamp fantasy saga following Agatha Heterodyne, a Spark. In this setting, Europe, or Europa, is ruled by various mad scientists known as Sparks. Poorly. Sparks are capable of fantastic scientific inventions and breakthroughs generally involving death rays, robots, or a combination of the two. Without giving too much away, the story is generally about Agatha trying to find out more about herself and keep herself out of the hands of those who want to use her for their own ends. The story is massive and the setting is epic in scale. The cast is enormous, but each character is well rounded and thought out. It’s one of the best comics on the web, and I can’t recommend it enough.

And the trend continues!

Gunnerkrigg Court is a great blending of science and fantasy. That’s essentially one of the major themes of the story, science and magic working together. The comic follows Antimony Carver, a young girl who’s just been enrolled at Gunnerkrigg Court, a school/research facility/who knows. While there, she encounters monsters, robots, and the occasional deity. Antimony is an interesting character. She takes all the weirdness and oddness of some of the Court more or less in stride. The story isn’t about here dealing with her new surroundings, but rather more about her dealing with her own personal demons and being a young girl still growing up. The artwork is off-putting at first but trust me it gets much better. The story is intriguing, the characters are great, and the setting is rich.

And then the trend abruptly stops.

Finally we have The Order of the Stick. To be fair, The Order of the Stick is mostly a gaming comic, but it’s about Dungeons and Dragons so it has a fantasy setting. Regardless, I’m counting it. The Order of the Stick is bloody hilarious. It’s mainly a comedic series which generally serves to make fun of gaming and narrative tropes. But it does have its deeper and more heartfelt moments as well. The series follows the titular order, a standard DnD party as they quest to destroy Xykon, an evil lich. Then the story sort of branches off from there filling in backstories and expanding the characters as it goes. I highly recommend it.